Hello Ant, I'm Dr. Deb and I'll do my best to help you today.I'm sorry that your mum's cat isn't feeling well.I do have a few questions to ask about Lucky first, if you don't mind:

1. Do you think you could take her temperature without getting hurt?2. Does she go outside?3. Is she continuing to vomit?4. Can you tell me the color of her gums?5. Can you find any localized areas of pain?

There may be a slight delay after I receive your answers since I have to type up a response to you. Thanks for your patience. Deb

This is a really tough situation since she won't really let you get near her to evauate what might be going on.

If we take the vomiting out of the problem list (since she's stopped and also since it doesn't take much to stimulate vomiting in a cat), then her growling and walking issues may be secondary to pain.

This pain could be related to an abscess...she could have gotten into an altercation with another cat while she was outside even for a short period of time. And, she might be running a fever which is why she's not as interested in eating. It's really hard to take a cat's temperature even if the cat is willing so I wouldn't want you to even attempt it with her given her current attitude. If she does have this problem and you find that it ruptures, this could be a very good thing. Just try to gently clean it with dilute betadine or iodine (to the color of weak tea) twice a day.It actually may heal on its own.

Or she could have pulled a muscle and be experiencing a strain/sprain.Or she might have arthritis which is flaring up.Or an issue with her spine.

If one of these problems is the cause of her current symptoms, I can't advise any over the counter pain medication since cats are sensitive to so many of them and might cause more harm...the last thing I'd want.

At this point, I would offer her only a small amount of boiled chicken at one time or even human baby food (if you have it or can find it) but I'd avoid those with onion or garlic in them.

Try to encourage her to drink if you can; offer tuna or clam juice or even low sodium chicken broth.

I'm not certain if she's going to get past this on her own or not but if she continues to behave as you describe, then perhaps a vet visit tomorrow would be a good idea.If she continues to vomit, you could give her 1/8th of a 75 mg Zantac (Ranitidine) but in all honesty, I don't know how you're going to get it into her without terrible injury to yourself!

This is a really tough situation, but I hope this helps and gives you possible options to consider as to whyi she's behaving this way. Deb

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